Simplified Guitar Music Spanish Studies for the Spanish Guitar Music Online Student.

How To understand and simplify Guitar Music Spanish Studies. First you’ll need to know the fatal mistakes to avoid.

As a Spanish guitar music online student or even offline the best ways to start studying the style are the unexpected ones. At first, (only at first) they’ll seem monotonous and boring. But they will help you understand what’s difficult and what to avoid. Understanding those things will make the rest easy. For now we’ll dive into the things you’ll need to know to help you avoid many big mistakes most people aren’t even aware of.

Fatal mistake number one: Most people don’t think of this and it’s a problem waiting to happen. They don’t know the history of the style so they never really get the “real feel” of the music or play it well. Knowing the history will help you avoid sounding fake and lifeless when you’re playing the Spanish guitar style.

The second common mistake people make is that they don’t how or where to get a quality guitar to play. So, from day one playing, guitar chord fingerings get’s very difficult, very quickly. We’ll talk about find a good quality Spanish guitar that plays well so you won’t get ripped off, discouraged or quit.

The next problem folk’s face: Not knowing where to find proper instruction to learn major musical scales, chords, where to find guitar tab for Spanish music, or where to find Spanish guitar music on line to learn from.  We’ll solve those problems too.

Spanish Guitar Music studies – The history made fun not boring to learn.

OK, some of the Spanish guitar styles history is actually pretty cool. Picture a band of gypsies roving through the country side in Spain, partying their butts off, staying up all night, dancing, drinking, ripping things off from surrounding villages, and playing a lot of music to dance to. If you think about it, the Spanish gypsies had a lot of time on their hands. So they had plenty of time to play music (including guitar) and become amazing musicians!

On the flip side of the coin though, they didn’t have very happy lives. The gypsies were not native Spaniards. They were (and still are) nomadic people that were not wanted by the Spanish natives or the government. Many of them came from Romania and Egypt around 1447 A.D. They were often shunned, beaten, forced to become Christians against their religious beliefs, not given jobs and driven into crime.

That could explain a little about why Spanish guitar scores often sound “sad” and slightly middle eastern. Music, after all, is a way people express how they feel.

Imagine what it must have been like to live on the run from people you have to steal from, seldom bathe, be a constant victim of prejudice, and always wonder if you’ll live to see the next day. Plenty of people would want to kill you for what they forced you to become!

Now that’s only part of the history of the style. There’s a lot more to learn that is very interesting if you want to research it further. Ultimately, the points to the history lesson are:

If you know the history of the people who created the style (in fact any style of music) then you can imagine what those people lived like.

When you can use your imagination and emotions to identify with how those people felt day to day, you can easily use the images and emotions to play the style authentically from your heart. If you know the history of the style and “feel” it, you’ll play killer music!

Guitar music playing Spanish influenced style requires a good guitar. This is how to find one.

(This information could save you a lot of money)

There are many things to know about this topic. Luckily though, they’re easy enough learn. They are:

Which guitar to get and where to find one at the best price.

What to pay and… What not to pay for!

How to tell if the instruments’ neck is warped or not and why.

The tell tale signs of poor quality instrument craftsmanship.

Which guitar to get and where to find one at the best price.

Usually (not always) Spanish Guitar music is played on what most people refer to as a “Classical guitar”. It’s an acoustic guitar with nylon strings. Here’s some good news, nylon stringed guitars are a lot easier on your fingers and to play than guitars with steel strings. Steel stringed guitars require a lot more tension for the strings to be tuned to proper pitch. So they’re harder to play than nylon stringed guitars.

Here’s some more good news. Believe it or not usually the best place to shop for a guitar is a small local music store you live near. Usually small music store owners are very helpful.

They often spend plenty of time answering their customers’ questions and offer far better service after the sale if anything goes wrong than large chain music stores. Their businesses depend on treating people well and usually they are in business because they really enjoy what they do.

Large chain stores on the other hand (not always, but often) can be the very opposite. Their businesses often depend on large numbers of sales. Time spent helping customers, answering questions and service after the sale can suffer because of it.

A small music store may not be able to offer you a price as low as a large chain. But, if the price difference is within what you can afford, you may be saving a lot shopping at their store in the long run.

What to pay… What not to pay for!

Generally, you will need to have at least $150 to buy a quality instrument. At that price range you will be better off to buy a used guitar. But that not a bad thing. Used guitars are often in great shape and are cheaper than brand new ones.

This is how to tell if you’re paying a fair price. If the guitar sold new (and it’s not a collectable or classic) for $300, it’s few years old, in good (not perfect) condition and it’s not a “big name brand” guitar, you should be able to buy it for $150 - $200. That’s generally a fair price. If the price is higher, pass on the guitar.

How to tell if the instruments’ neck is warped or not and why.

If the guitars neck is warped, it’s easy to spot. Just pick up the guitar and look down at the neck from the body like you’re sighting a gun. If both sides of the neck are straight or curve evenly, it’s probably fine.

If the neck is warped, it will be very hard for a guitar repair person to adjust the guitar so you can play it easily. So, when you “site” the neck, if you see that both sides curve in different directions, pass on the guitar. You’ll want to buy a guitar with a good solid neck if you want it to be easy to play.

The tell tale signs of poor quality instrument craftsmanship.

There are two main things to look out for are the nut and bridge of the guitar. The bridge holds the strings to the body and the nut is where the strings are held at the end of the neck.

If the craftsmanship of the guitar is poor, the bridge will “lift” and the strings will be too high. So, pressing the strings to the frets will be very tough.

Also, if the nut is cut incorrectly, strings will be too high as well. Here is how to tell if either the bridge or nut were poorly crafted:

If you just look at the body of the guitar and see that the bridge is bending the wood on the guitar and making the bridge look like it’s not level, it’s lifting. Avoid it.

When you look at the strings going over the nut and see that there is more than roughly 1/8 inch of space between the fireboard and the strings, the nut was cut incorrectly. Pass on the guitar, or ask if the nut can be re-cut before you buy. It’s an easy fix for any guitar repair person.

To play great Spanish guitar you’ll need great instruction and great Spanish music to listen to. So, let’s make then all easy to find for you.

Well now that you know some history to indentify with when you play and how to find a good guitar at a great price, you’re ready to start looking for lessons to actually play Spanish guitar music! Here are the basic topics to know and think over:

Decide if you want to learn Spanish guitar music online, with a private teacher or both.

Know what chords and scales will give the Spanish “sounds”.

Learn how to find music to listen to for good influences and new ideas.

Where to find sheet music and guitar tab for Spanish music.

Decide if you want to learn Spanish guitar music online, with a private teacher or both. Both ways have many advantages!

Hiring a private teacher can be great. You can learn a lot from a good one. But before you take your first lesson, make sure you have met the guitar instructor and have a good feeling about them.

Online guitar instructions are also a wonderful way to learn Spanish guitar as well. The advantages are: You will definitely pay much less for online lessons, you’ll be able to learn at your own pace and you’ll find with online lesson sites, you’ll have much more information to learn at your fingertips.

The best approach is to do both if you can.

Know what chords and scales will give the Spanish “sounds”.

Now you’ll need to know is where those “Spanish” sounds come from. In other words, what chords and major musical scales to use.

Primarily, the Spanish music style uses minor scales but there are times when you will hear major sounds too. Here are the scales and chords in the “family of sounds” you’ll want to learn about.

The “Natural” minor scale (sounds sad)

Phrygian mode (can sound Egyptian or meddle eastern)

The harmonic and melodic minor scales (both sound very classical or European)

The major scale (sounds happy)

The chords you’ll want to start learning first:

Major chords, minor chords, seventh chords, half diminished & diminished chords

Learn how to find music to listen to for good influences and new ideas

You can easily download Spanish music to listen to all over the Internet through file music sharing programs. Just do a search for them and you’ll find hundreds in seconds! Another great place to look is your public library and it’s free!

Where to find sheet music and guitar tab for Spanish music

Again, a great place to look is the Internet. Just search for Spanish sheet music or guitar tabs and you’ll find plenty of sources.

Final Thoughts

Starting your guitar music Spanish studies off on the right foot comes down to a few simple things.

If you take a little time to learn the history of the music, you’ll easily be able to get into the “head space” of the musical style and play it well.

Go to a music store where you’ll be treated right and get your questions answered before you buy. Then you’ll find the perfect guitar that you’ll be happy with and play for years.

Last, get the best instructions you can afford and have fun playing!